NORTH COUNTY: Local trash haulers begin recycling Styrofoam

North County's two big trash haulers recently started allowing customers to recycle Styrofoam, which can be converted into picture frames, crown molding, flower pots, auto accessories and other industrial materials.

Jeff Ritchie, vice president of Escondido Disposal Inc., said the move was prompted by increasing demand from industrial recyclers and by his company's commitment to preserving dwindling capacity in local landfills.

"We've been looking to do this for a while, and we finally found a sustainable market," said Ritchie, whose company handles trash and recycling for Escondido, Vista, San Marcos, Encinitas and Poway. "We're always looking for ways to divert more materials away from landfills."

Waste Management, which handles trash and recycling for Oceanside, Carlsbad, Solana Beach and Del Mar, began allowing customers to recycle Styrofoam for the same reasons, company spokeswoman Charissa McAfee said this week.

Customers should simply put Styrofoam into their blue recycling bins, Ritchie and McAfee said. The lightweight white plastic is frequently used for food containers, disposable cups and meat packaging from grocery stores.

All of these types of Styrofoam can now be recycled, but the small Styrofoam "peanuts" frequently used as packing materials are not yet eligible for recycling and should continue to be put in the gray trash bins.

However, large chunks of Styrofoam used in packaging for TVs or computer screens can be recycled.

Environmental groups said the decision by the trash haulers to recycle Styrofoam, which has become a growing trend across the country in recent years, was a step in the right direction ---- but only a small step.

They said it would be preferable for people to stop buying and using Styrofoam, a petroleum-based form of plastic that isn't biodegradable.

"While this is good news, we should be phasing out Styrofoam and moving to more sustainable materials," said Dan Jacobson, legislative director for Environment California in Sacramento. "Styrofoam is typically used only once, whether it's for food you eat or for shipping your TV. This kind of recycling will only add a second use, not make it sustainable."

Jacobson also noted that using Styrofoam for hot beverages has been linked to cancer, because heat releases the carcinogen styrene from the material.

Recycling Styrofoam is also unlikely to help clean up local waterways, said Alicia Glassco, head of San Diego Coastkeeper's marine debris and education programs.

"Plastic recycling is a step in the right direction," said Glassco, adding that less Styrofoam in landfills would be a welcome change. "But plastics are the debris we find most often during cleanups, and Coastkeeper doesn't believe recycling will stop the flow."

Ritchie, the EDI vice president, said his company agrees that Styrofoam should be phased out as quickly as possible. But he said recycling was a viable option when people have no other choice.

Ritchie said his company was particularly interested in having customers recycle larger pieces of Styrofoam, such as those that come with TVs or computer screens, because those pieces were more valuable to industrial recyclers. He said smaller food Styrofoam containers could still be placed in blue bins, but that they were a lower priority.

In its most recent newsletter, EDI told customers in all of its cities that the company would begin recycling Styrofoam, Ritchie said. Waste Management has only notified Del Mar customers, with other cities to follow shortly, McAfee said.